I knew the first Idiot 'chau'

The character played by Aamir Khan in '3 Idiots' reminded me of 'chau' aka Promod Chaudhari, one of the finest intellects I have ever met. He was one of our stars during school days. I had never seen him studying even while he stayed just stone throw distance from my place. Always helping others achieve their assignments. He was always a couple of steps ahead of his peers. All-rounder good in both acads, sports as well as extra-curricular activities.

We were somewhere in our 9th std where one of the teachers propped up a discussion on our Nation. I still remember how vehemently he contradicted the fact that the leaders of the Nation once decided to divide it based on language. Most of us in the class were clueless of where the discussion was proceeding, but it sounded very interesting and cool. He was very interested in a mini-computer his father got for him. It used to say 'Jai Ramji ki' on start-up :) We used to wonder how :)

Once during our school days we were roaming around when he asked me "what do you feel about tomorrow". In my typical spirited tone I said 'tomorrow is a new day, a new challenge'. He couldn't stop laughing after listening the word 'challenge'. For him life was being very easy. He could easily predict what's in store for future, what would be his career path. When most of the peers didn't even bother to know more than getting top scores at school & college and landing into premier jobs, this guy used to picturize what family life would be for him after marriage....

He used to boost my confidence in dealing the bully. I learnt two important lessons during school from our dear Late Chau. First that the purest form of water is steam and second that if you want to ignore one our pakao friends just divert the mind into some other topic and engage it in it. The ears will just hear, the mind wont listen :) I validate this with in my Vendanta classes after more than a decade. Wonder the previous life of this soul.

The class of IX was such a nasty one, the class teacher had very little choice but to select chau as the class monitor. We saw some of the most promising leadership qualities at display at that young age. During physical conflicts, this macho bodied chau used to stand as a barrier in between the two and ask to take out their frustration on him rather than each other, both actually stopped fighting. He used to engage the most noisiest pupils very well and the rest of class was thus beautifully managed. He used to be put-off by the tota-rams of our schools rattofying all the text books.

While he was studying 2nd year engineering in one of the front-line engg institutes in Mumbai, we got a message through our locality that he was hit on fore-head by a fast train in kurla station. Nobody got a clue of why would he cross the rails ahead of Kurla station on that fateful day.

The country lost one great scholar.

At this juncture of the country's progress, I see so many open challenges waiting for the finest brains to solve them elegantly. I wish atleast one of our schooling teachers would have thrown open this pandora of challenges lying ahead for the finest breed that was developing. A purpose in life is so very important. The most advanced of transportation systems in the making is named to honor this great soul.